Mohamed Al-Deayea

Mohamed Abdullaziz Al-Deayea Al-Shammari (; born 2 August 1972), also known as Mohammed Deayea al-Shammari, is a Saudi Arabian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He participated in four FIFA World Cups for the Saudi Arabia national team and earned a total of 173 officially recognised caps. Al-Deayea played for al-Tai FC and al-Hilal SFC and was represented in all Saudi national teams. He is considered one of the prominent goalkeepers in the history of Saudi sports.

Early life and club career Mohammed al-Deayea was born in Hail into a family passionate about sports. He initially started as a handball goalkeeper for al-Tai FC at eight years old but switched to football following a recommendation from the club's junior football coach. He joined al-Tai SFC's junior team in 1988, impressing enough to earn a spot on the Saudi junior national team. With this team, he triumphed at the FIFA U-16 World Championship in Scotland in 1989. He progressed to the youth national team and by 1993, he was playing for the senior Saudi national team.

Al-Deayea played a pivotal role in the national team's qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup in the United States, where he excelled. In 1999, al-Hilal SFC acquired him in a high-profile transfer, and he defended their goal until retiring in 2010, capping a twenty-two-year career. A testimonial match was organized in 2012 to honor his contributions, featuring a game between Italy's Juventus and al-Hilal SFC. Despite his qualifications, Al-Deayea is the joint holder of a negative record: most goals conceded by a goalkeeper in FIFA World Cups, tied with Mexican legend Antonio Carbajal, having conceded 25 goals in 10 matches across the three tournaments in which he played (1994, 1998 and 2002). About a third of these came in a single match, in the 2002 tournament, where Germany thrashed an out-of-sorts Saudi team by an 8-0 score.

Al-Deayea has split his professional career between the clubs Al-Ta'ee and Al-Hilal. Originally, he started as a handball player, but was convinced by his club and his older brother Abdullah to become a professional footballer. Mohammed was under great pressure of expectations in the beginning of his career because his brother Abdullah was an AFC Asian Cup winner and a highly reputed goalkeeper.

Retirement On 22 June 2010, Mohamed Al-Deayea announced his retirement from football at the age of 37. On 5 January 2012, a testimonial match for him was organised between his club Al-Hilal and Juventus, with 70,000 people attending at the King Fahd Stadium. The match ended 7–1 in favour of Juventus with Al-Hilal's sole goal coming from Saad Al-Harthi. Juventus' goals were scored by Alessandro Del Piero (twice), Eljero Elia, Arturo Vidal, Giorgio Chiellini, Simone Pepe and Fabio Quagliarella.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours Al-Ta'ee Saudi First Division: 1994–95

Al-Hilal Saudi Premier League: 2001–02, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10 Saudi Crown Prince Cup: 1999–2000, 2003, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10 Saudi Founder's Cup: 1999–2000 AFC Champions League: 1999–2000 Asian Cup Winners Cup: 2001–02 Asian Super Cup: 2000 Arab Cup Winners' Cup: 2000 Arab Super Cup: 2001

Saudi Arabia U17 FIFA U-17 World Cup: 1989

Saudi Arabia AFC Asian Cup: 1996 Arabian Gulf Cup: 1994, 2003 Arab Nations Cup: 1998 Islamic Solidarity Games: 2005

Individual AFC Asian Cup Team of the Tournament: 1996 FIFA Confederations Cup All-Star Team: 1997 AFC Asian All-Star: 1997, 2000 IFFHS Asia's Goalkeeper of the Century: 1999 AFC Fans' All-time XI at the FIFA World Cup: 2020 IFFHS Asian Men's Team of All Time: 2021 AFC Asian Cup All-time XI: 2023